Newsmakers: Ellen talks up Oscars

FROM WIRE REPORTS

November 23, 2013

DeGeneres excited about hosting Oscars

Ellen DeGeneres has high aspirations for her second time around hosting the Oscars.

"It reached the world," the talk show host said of her well-received 2007 Oscarcast. "And I'm trying to get world peace. So, that's my goal. My hope is by hosting the Academy Awards, right afterward, we have world peace."

DeGeneres may have been exaggerating, but there's no overstating her enthusiasm for the upcoming March 2 gig.

"I know a lot of those people," she said of the Oscar audience. "They're on my show a lot. I love the whole business. … I get to play with all those people in the audience and make people happy, and, hopefully, relax them."

Translator

To read this article in one of Houston's most-spoken languages, click on the button below.

DeGeneres made her comments Friday while attending a Toys for Tots charity event in Los Angeles.

'Hunger Games' sequel catching fire in box office

"The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" is a scorching hit at the box office.

Lionsgate has released early numbers on what's expected to be one of the biggest November openings ever. "Catching Fire" has grossed $70.5 million domestically and $64 million internationally, bringing its total to $135 million, the studio reported Saturday.

Numbers were from Friday's opening day, but includes some scattered preview shows on Thursday night. The sequel gained $25.3 million from Thursday screenings.

Civil rights pioneer dies at 95 in Louisiana

The Rev. T.J. Jemison, a civil rights pioneer who organized a 1953 bus boycott in Baton Rouge, La., that foreshadowed the one set off by Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Ala., and who went on to lead the nation's largest black Baptist organization into liberal political activism, died Nov. 15 in Baton Rouge. He was 95.

Jemison was one of a handful of black clergymen recognized as a leader of the first generation of the civil rights movement. He was a founding member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.